The Mustang Outreach Program has had a tough couple of years.
What Mustang Outreach does is teach kids how to play music and perform onstage—guitar, bass, keyboards—everything needed for a rock and roll band.
But when COVID hit they lost their major source of funding, the Mustang Music Festivals; and adding to the problems, their rehearsal space was much too small to gather a five or six kids together in one room.
So for almost two years, Music Director Ruth Wyand hasn’t been able to do much and the program was very close to saying, “That’s it. We can’t do it.”
That would’ve been a tragedy, because there are a lot of kids who have gone through the program and so many of them were having trouble in school or with family. What Mustang Outreach gave them was a place where they could focus their energies and learn some positive life skills. While, of course, learning about music.
The program looks as though it’s back.
The fundraiser today at the Outer Banks Brewing Station brought in a lot of folks on a beautiful late November day. The kids got a chance to play and they did an amazing job.
Mixed in with the kids were some of the finest musicians performing not he Outer Banks. The result was a great day of music and a very much needed financial shot in the arm for the Mustang Outreach Program.
To get a good handle on how effective the instruction is, as things were wrapping up, some of the kids who have been working with Ruth and Assistant Music Director Amanda Williams played drum and bass on a rockin’ arrangement of Proud Mary. They were playing with Ruth on guitar, some great saxophone and they more than held their own.
The Outer Banks is a place that believes in community involvement. It’s much of why it’s such a great place to visit. Stop by for a week or two and see for yourself in a Brindley Beach Vacations home.